I’ve been running on biodiesel for a few years now, and I get a lot of questions about it. So here’s the FAQ.

Is it a special biodiesel model and if so, where do you buy one?

No, it’s just a 2003 VW Jetta diesel. It only says “BIODIESEL” on the back because I bought the little chrome letters and stuck them on myself.

Did you have to make any special modifications?

No. Diesel motors were originally designed to run on peanut oil, not petroleum. Older vehicles may need to upgrade some of their fuel system components, but most modern diesels are fine as-is.

Seriously? No modifications?

Okay, I made a few little improvements, but only for better performance, not because I had to. I added a Van Aken speed chip, a K&N air filter, and Bilstein heavy-duty shocks. Oh, and when I switched over to biodiesel, I went through a couple of fuel filters in quick succession – since it runs cleaner than petro-diesel, it tends to blow all the accumulated scale and crud out of the system when you first make the transition.